sometimes beatings makes them worse.
i think that it's the parents fault for not teaching. very simple, when a child is still a baby they absorb everything around them. they dont know what wrong is or why it's wrong. as adults it's the parents responsability to pay and clean up the childs mess [in this case a whole town] . they should throw them in jail too.

I have 3 kids and one more on the way....when they screw up they pay. I never had to "beat" my kids they listen. They have to fear you to understand if they screw up its gonna be bad. For instance my son hit some kid in school with his bookbag screwing around, they gave him afterschool detention for a hour, last night I made him empty a trunkload of firewood and stack it neatly. He learned a good lesson.